This invention relates to a process for manufacturing a transparent conductive film wiring board, and more particularly to a process for manufacturing a transparent conductive film wiring board using an indium tin oxide film (hereinafter referred to as "ITO film") which is adapted to be used for a display device such as an LGD, a VFD, a PDP or the like.
Now, a process for manufacturing a transparent conductive film wiring board which has been conventionally practiced will be described with reference to FIGS. 3A to 3E. First, as shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, a transparent ITO film 101 is formed on a front surface of a glass substrate 100 by electron beam (EB) deposition or sputtering. This may be carried out by depositing ITO on the glass substrate 100 while heating the substrate and concurrently or thereafter subjecting the deposited ITO to crystallization to prepare the transparent ITO film 101.
Then, as shown in FIG. 3C, the ITO film 101 is formed thereon with a resist layer 102, which is then subject to exposure through a mask 103 of a predetermined pattern.
Subsequently, the resist layer 102 is contacted with a developing solution, resulting in a resist pattern 102a being formed as shown in FIG. 3D. Thereafter, the ITO film 101 is subject to etching through the resist pattern 102a by means of an etching liquid, so that an exposed portion of the ITO film is dissolved, to thereby provide a wiring pattern 101a of the ITO film 101 as shown in FIG. 3E.
Unfortunately, it has been found that the conventional process has some disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is that the process is carried out according to a wet procedure using a developing solution, an etching liquid and the like, so that facilities for a liquid-waste treatment are required, leading to an increase in facility costs and therefore manufacturing costs.
Another disadvantage is that the process causes the number of steps for the process to be increased, to thereby cause a long period of time to be required for the process, resulting in the productivity being deteriorated and the manufacturing costs being further increased.